The Costume Contest
by Ryu-Sorairo
Summary: Charlie and Eliza are tired of wearing the same costumes every year and turn to Chelsea for advice. Will there be a happy Halloween on the island, or will her advice lead to disaster?
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note: **I had a sudden urge to do a Halloween story! Instead of making it one long chapter, it'll be 5 short chapters, and I'm going to try to post one everyday so they'll be up in time for the actual holiday :P But I don't have home internet, so no guarantees XD Anyways, hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think!

**Chapter 1**

It happened during the last week of fall. The island had an aura of excitement around it, the kind that comes with any major holiday.

And this major holiday happened to involve free candy.

Chelsea was on her way back to her farm from Chen's shop, her arms full of mini sized chocolates she had bought to hand out, when she overheard Charlie and Eliza arguing by Taro's house. Being the curious person that she was, she decided to go over and find out what was wrong.

"Hi guys! What's-"

"CHELSEA!" Charlie and Eliza yelled at the same time, turning to glare at her with such intensity that Chelsea took a few steps back.

"Chelsea, tell Charlie he can't be a pirate ninja _again _this year!"

"Tell Eliza that she can't be a stupid princess again either!"

"Uh..."  
><strong><br>**Eliza crossed her arms. "Charlie has been a pirate ninja for Halloween for the past three years! I mean, _really_, it's time for a change, don't you think?"

Charlie frowned. "I like my pirate ninja costume. And it's _cool_, unlike the princess one that you always wear!"  
><strong><br>**Chelsea shrugged. "Here's an idea, why don't you both be something different this year?"

"Like what?" Eliza asked.

"We need ideas!" Charlie added, kicking a small pebble.

Chelsea put a hand to her chin. "Hmm…You know what might be fun? If you two went around and asked all the villagers for ideas! Then, take all their ideas, and combine them into one mega costume!"

Eliza shrugged. "I don't know... The people on this island come up with some weird ideas sometimes. "

"Eliza, you're a scaredy cat." Charlie said. "But I'm not! So Chelsea, I accept your challenge!"

Eliza glared at Charlie. "Well _I'm _not a scaredy cat, so I accept Chelsea's challenge too!"

"Um…Good?" Chelsea smiled, having no idea how her suggestion had turned into some battle.

"So, what are the rules?" Eliza asked. "Every good contest has rules!"

"How about Charlie can only get advice from the girls, and Eliza has to get them from the guys? And your final costume must have something from everyone's suggestions. The winner will be whoever put the ideas together the best!"

"Mmmm, okay. I can work with that."

"Question!" Charlie raised his hand in the air. "What's the prize?"

"What? Now you guys need a prize, too?"

"Well yeah! All good contests have a prize for the winner."

Chelsea glanced around her farm. "Ok. Winner can ride my horse."

"LAME! How about the winner gets a year's supply of chocolate?" Charlie asked.

"I'm not rich, you know…"

"Or…or how about you do the winner's chores for a year?"

Chelsea closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Look, you guys start asking around. I'll think of something by Halloween night."

"Like a surprise? Ok! Charlie, prepare to lose to the awesomeness that will be my costume!" Eliza said, skipping off towards the animal shop, Charlie running after her.

Chelsea sighed, and headed home to try and find something prize-y. **  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was a slow day at the animal shop. Vaughn was leaning against a wall doing nothing in particular, and Julia was reading a magazine. She glanced up as the door slammed shut and Charlie and Eliza raced in.

"Look Vaughn! We have new customers today!"

Vaughn rolled his eyes.

Eliza tapped Charlie on the shoulder. "Did we have to come here first? The cowboy guy is scary…"

"Aw, come on. He's cool. Watch." Charlie walked over to Vaughn, holding his hand up for a high five. "Gimme five!"

"... ... ..."

Charlie slowly lowered his hand and walked back over to Eliza as Vaughn continued to glare at him.

"Told you." she whispered.

"So, what brings you two in here today?" Julia asked.

"We need costume ideas for this contest Chelsea's having. Charlie's suppose to ask the girls and I have to ask the guys." Eliza said, chancing a glance at Vaughn. "So, um, Mister Vaughn…What do you think I should be for Halloween?"

He shrugged. "You're peppy. Be a cheerleader or something."

Julia rolled her eyes. "Oh wow, Vaughn. You're so original. Eliza, you should be a zombie."

"She wouldn't be able to pull off a zombie." Vaughn crossed his arms. "But it might be interesting to see her try…"

Eliza's eyes widened in horror. "Really, the cheerleader idea was fine…"

He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Nope. We're going with the zombie."

Eliza looked like she was going to faint at the thought of being something so un-girly.

"So now I need to give you an idea?" Julia asked, and Charlie nodded. She put a hand to her chin. "Hmmm…Ah! I've got it. Charlie shall be a werewolf! I'm talking full wolf, now. Fangs, tail, body covered in fur…Fake fur of course…"

Charlie stared at her. "…But won't that be itchy?"

Julia shrugged. "Guess you'll find out! Have fun, guys!"

Eliza shook her head and Charlie started scratching various parts of his body as they walked out of the shop.

Vaughn turned to Julia.

"...I'm scary?"


	3. Chapter 3

Halfway done! O_O There's still hope I can finish updating on time!

**Chapter 3**

"I bet you five bucks Denny will tell you to be a mermaid."

"And I bet Lanna will tell you to be a singer!"

Eliza and Charlie shook hands and headed to the beach. Lanna was walking along the shore and Denny was standing on the pier holding a fishing rod. He waved when he saw them.

"Hi guys! Wanna fish with us?"

Eliza shook her head. "No thanks, we're trying to get ready for this costume contest Chelsea's having. "

"I love contests! Think she'll let me enter?"

"I don't see why not."

"Awesome."

"Ahem…" Lanna walked up to them, glaring at Denny. "You mean _we'll _enter, right? We can totally do a cute couple's costume!"

"Uh…yeah…totally…" He leaned over and whispered to Charlie "This is why you don't want a girlfriend."

Charlie nodded.

"So? What are you guys gonna be?" Lanna asked. Charlie shrugged.

"We need ideas-"

"OH! Wouldn't it be cute if you two had a couple's costume too?" She grabbed Eliza by the shoulders, her eyes wide with excitement. "I can totally see you as a blonde Cleopatra! We could make Charlie dress as one of your servants or something."

"Hey!" Charlie said, scowling.

"Or, like, you could be a sunflower, right? And Charlie could be a giant watering can, showering you with affection! Oh my gosh, I am like so deep and philosophical sometimes…"

Eliza grinned. "I love your ideas, Lanna!"

"Well too bad your ideas have to come from the guys!" Charlie said, suddenly very grateful for that rule. "So Lanna has to be giving ME ideas."

"Oh?" Lanna sighed, obviously disappointed. "Well….Oh, no, wait! I met this guy in Hollywood, right? And he gave me this really thick chain. You can borrow that and be, like, a rock star or something! We can make your hair all spiky and everything! Hang on, I'll go get it!"

Lanna ran off in the direction of her house.

Charlie looked at Denny. "You still wanna go to the costume party?"

Denny rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe I can sneak out before she has a chance to costume me…"

Eliza cleared her throat, holding out her hand. "Five bucks, please!"

Charlie gulped, and turned to Denny. ""So what do you think Eliza should be?"

"Hm? Oh…um…" Denny shrugged. "A ballerina?" They stared at him in surprise. "What?"

"We thought for sure you'd pick something…ocean-y."

He laughed. "Yeah?"

"Yeah…" Charlie sighed, reaching in his pocket for his allowance money.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Eliza felt guilty about taking Charlie's allowance, so she decided to take him to the diner for an ice cream cone. When they walked in, they saw Elliot and Sabrina huddled together at a table in the back.

Eliza gasped. "Oh my gosh, why is Elliot sitting with Sabrina? What if he's cheating on Julia?"

Charlie tilted his head. "…Or, you know, they could just be hanging out."

"Charlie, I'm a girl. I know these things! We _have _to go over there and find out!"

"Uh…"

"Be discreet, okay?"

She grabbed Charlie's wrist and dragged him over to Elliot's table. "I didn't know you two were friends." She said, putting her hands on her hips.

Elliot gave her a small smile. "Um…yeah…W-we just started hanging out."

"Mmm-hmm…" She crossed her arms. "Cheating is bad, Elliot."

He blinked and looked at Charlie.

"She wants to know if you're cheating on Julia with _that_." Charlie said matter-of-factly, pointing at Sabrina.

Eliza gawked at him. "Charlie! You're supposed to be discreet!"

"Well I don't know what _discreet _means!" He said, shrugging.

Eliza rolled her eyes and turned back to Elliot, glaring. "Well? Are you?"

"N-no! W-we're not…I'm not.." He looked at Sabrina, who glanced at the floor.

"We're starting a club…" She muttered. "For building self confidence…"

Elliot nodded and handed them a piece of paper that had been on the table. "This is a schedule of our events so far."

**Confidence Club Plans  
><strong>-

Charlie flipped the paper over and looked on the back. "It's blank."

Sabrina sighed. "We don't know where to start…"

Charlie shrugged. "How about by pretending to be someone else? Chelsea's having a Halloween party. And the winner gets this huge secret prize!"

Elliot and Sabrina exchanged glances. "Well…it couldn't hurt…"

Eliza nodded. "Good. Now, um…Could you maybe give us some costume ideas? We just need one more."

"…Charlie should be a cowboy." Sabrina said, not pausing to think.

Charlie frowned. "I don't think I have anything cowboy though…"

Sabrina thought for a moment, then reached into her bag. "Here…You can borrow this, I guess…" She pulled out a black fringed vest. It looked like it was moments away from falling to pieces. Charlie squinted at it.

"Hey, that looks like the vest I saw Vaughn throw away last month…"

Sabrina turned a deep shade of red. Charlie raised an eyebrow. Eliza sighed and took the vest from Sabrina, shoving it in Charlie's hands.

"Thanks, Sabrina. Elliot, what should I be?"

"Oh…um…" He glanced around. There was a cat sitting on the diner's windowsill. "A kitty?"

Eliza shrugged." Okay. I guess that will work. Good luck with your club, guys."

Elliot blinked at Sabrina. "Did you really steal Vaughn's vest?"

She glanced at the floor again. "It's not stealing if he threw it away…"

x-x-x

Charlie and Eliza headed towards Chen's shop.

"So…I have to make a zombie ballerina cat costume?"

"And I'm a werewolf rock star cowboy…."

They exchanged worried glances, then headed to their homes to try and think of some way to not look stupid on Halloween night. **  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 5

All the other chapters get posted on time, then the final one I get writer's block and it ends up being like a week late! XD Oh well, at least it got finished, right? Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I _really really_ appreciate it! ^_^ And I hope you enjoy the ending (even if it's a few days late…)

**Chapter 5**

There was a knock on the door. Chelsea took a last look at the two giant baskets of chocolate bars and gems on her table. She nodded. That was a good enough prize, right? Kids like candy and shiny things…

There was another knock, and she ran over to her door. She opened it and grinned. Eliza's arms and face were covered in white body paint. She had black eyeliner thickly applied around her eyes and stitches drawn up both arms. She was wearing a pink tutu and black cat ears. Charlie had a black fringe vest and cowboy boots, a thick gold chain with a dollar sign pendant on it, spiked hair, tan wolfish ears and a scraggly piece of material tied onto a belt loop, meant to look like a tail.

"Aw, you two look…interesting."

Eliza smiled. "Yeah. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Even Charlie doesn't look that stupid."

"Thanks…" Charlie said, not sure if he'd just been insulted or not. "I'm a cowboy werewolf rock star! Eliza's a zombie ballerina cat."

Chelsea tried not to laugh at how ridiculous that sounded.

Eliza smiled up at her. "So? Who wins the contest?"

Chelsea put a hand to her chin. "Well, you both put a lot of effort into this, so I think you both deserve to win!"

Charlie frowned. "No! We need a _real _winner!"

"Yeah! Which outfit do you like more?"

Chelsea was saved from having to choose by someone screaming her name in the distance. They turned around and saw Denny running up the path to her house, his arms full of toilet paper.

"Chelsea! Quick, let me in!"

"What happened?" Chelsea asked as they followed him inside her house. He collapsed onto her bed.

"Lanna….costume…no time to explain…might catch me…just wrap me…" He said in between gasps for air, handing her the rolls of paper.

"Uh…" There was another knock on the door. She handed the paper to Charlie. "Here, you do it."

Charlie grinned. "Awesome! I get to wrap Denny up in toilet paper!"

"Who is it now?" Chelsea muttered as she opened the door to find Julia with a pair of fluffy white wings on her back, carrying a heart shaped bow. Vaughn was standing behind her wearing a pair of shiny sunglasses on his head and a black t-shirt with a giant smiley face and the words "you people suck" on it.

Julia grinned. "Hi Chelsea! I'm cupid, here to spread the Halloween love! And Vaughn's...Um…"

He crossed his arms, scowling. "Cool and approachable."

"Right. So are we too early for the costume party?"

Chelsea blinked.

"Ooohhh yeah…" Charlie said from inside the house. "We forgot to tell her about that…"

"Tell me what?" Chelsea asked, turning to glare at him. He shrugged.

"We told a couple of people that you're having a big party."

Chelsea's jaw dropped. "I'm not having a party!"

"You are now…" Vaughn muttered as a whole group of people, half of which Chelsea didn't even recognize, walked onto the ranch.

**x-x-x**  
>"Hey, you got any soda?"<p>

"Yeah, just a second…" Chelsea sighed, heading back to her kitchen to get the random partygoer some soda. She didn't want to be mean and tell everyone to go home, so now her entire ranch had been turned into a party zone.

On her way to the fridge she ran into Lanna, who took one look at her and shook her head. "Tsk, tsk, throwing a costume party and you're not even in costume!"

Chelsea ignored her.

"Oh, by the way, have you seen Denny anywhere? I tried to get him to dress up as a flower to complement my adorable bee costume, right? But he took one look at it and ran off!"

Chelsea rolled her eyes. "Ask the Mummy. He might know something."

Five minutes later Lanna found a guy wrapped in toilet paper standing outside with Charlie, Eliza, Julia and Vaughn. She ran over to them.

"Hey, mummy dude…Have you seen Denny anywhere?"

The mummy's eyes grew wide. "Mmmph! M-MMpphh!"

Lanna frowned. "…Denny? Is that you in there?"

Denny made an attempt to hop off, but he had been wrapped up too tightly and after getting three hops away, fell flat on his face.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so glad I found you! Come on, it's not too late! We can totally still get you in that flower costume!"

"MMMMPPPHHH!"

"Poor Denny." Charlie muttered as Lanna dragged him off.

A few feet away, Sabrina and Elliot were watching them from behind Chelsea's house. Sabrina was wearing a random blonde wig, oversized sunglasses and a long red dress. Elliot was in a suit and small black sunglasses. He lifted his wrist and started talking into his watch.

"International spies Sabrina and Elliot have located their target: the moody cowboy known as Vaughn. Agent Sabrina is about to make her move."

Sabrina lowered her glasses. "I don't know about this…"

"Come on, you have to start somewhere, right?"

She gave him a panicked look, but walked out from behind the house and over to Vaughn's group…

"Your costumes turned out pretty nice after all!" Julia said, admiring Eliza and Charlie's handiwork. Vaughn nodded, unaware of the person right behind him. "Who won the contest?"

"It was a tie…" Charlie sighed. "The prize was a bunch of candy and rocks. It was kind of stupid, but Chelsea looked pretty mad about this whole party thing, so we figured we better just take it."

Sabrina was getting ready to tap Vaughn on the shoulder when he suddenly yelled "Hey!"

She paused, her eyes wide.

He glared at Charlie. "That vest…It looks familiar…"

Sabrina slowly inched away.

**x-x-x**  
>By midnight the party had finally started to die down. Chelsea sat on her bed as the last of the partiers made their way out.<p>

"Thanks for the party, man!" Some random guy said, slapping her on the back. She glared at him, too tired to do anything else.

"Hey, Chelsea…?" She glanced at the door as Charlie and Eliza walked in. "You're not mad at us, are you?"

She shrugged, flopping back onto her pillow. "I guess not."

"Good. Here." They put a huge pile of cash next to her on the bed. She blinked at it, sitting up.

"Where'd this come from?"

"We wanted to thank you for helping us, and for the party and stuff." Eliza said. Charlie nodded.

"So we started charging people five bucks to enter the ranch! Pretty smart, huh?"

Chelsea blinked.

Eliza's eyes grew wide. "Oh no, we did something bad!Charlie, I told you it might be illegal!"

Charlie shook his head. "Nuh-uh! It's perfectly okay to charge someone to attend a party! … …Right?"

They exchanged panicked glances and turned to Chelsea. "IS IT?"

She shrugged, laying back down on her pillow. "I don't know. Why don't you guys go ask all the villagers? One of them might know."

"Oooh, yeah! Good idea! Let's go!"

"Charlie, we can't do that now! It's midnight! I have to go home and get my beauty sleep!"

"You look fine!"

Chelsea sighed as they ran back outside, arguing.

"Kids…" She muttered, drifting asleep.


End file.
